Doctors experimenting with AI tools to help diagnose patients is nothing new. But getting them to trust the AIs they’re using is another matter entirely.
To establish that trust, researchers at Cornell University attempted to create a more transparent AI system that works by counseling doctors in the same way a human colleague would — that is, arguing over what the medical literature says.
Their resulting study, which will be presented at the Association for Computing Machinery Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems later this month, found that how a medical AI works isn’t nearly as important to earning a doctor’s trust as the sources it cites in its suggestions.
“A doctor’s primary job is not to learn how AI works,” said Qian Yang, an assistant professor of information science at Cornell who led the study, in a press release. “If we can build systems that help validate AI suggestions based on clinical trial results and journal articles, which are trustworthy information for doctors, then we can help them understand whether the AI is likely to be right or wrong for each specific case.”
“We built a system that basically tries to recreate the interpersonal communication that we observed when the doctors give suggestions to each other, and fetches the same kind of evidence from clinical literature to support the AI’s suggestion,” Yang said.
The AI tool Yang’s team created is based on GPT-3, an older large language model that once powered OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The tool’s interface is fairly straightforward: on one side, it provides the AI’s suggestions. The other side contrasts this with relevant biomedical literature the AI gleaned, plus brief summaries of each study and other helpful nuggets of information like patient outcomes.
So far, the team has developed their tool with three different medical specializations: neurology, psychiatry, and palliative care. When the doctors tried the versions tailored to their respective field, they told the researchers that they liked the presentation of the medical literature, and affirmed they preferred it to an explanation of how the AI worked.
Either way, this specialized AI seems to be faring better than ChatGPT’s attempt of playing the doctor in a larger study, which found that 60 percent of its answers to real medical scenarios disagreed with human experts’ opinions or were too irrelevant to be helpful.
But the jury is still out on how the Cornell researchers’ AI would hold up when subjected to a similar analysis.
Overall, it’s worth noting that while these tools may be helpful to doctors who have years of expertise to inform their decisions, we’re still a very long way out from an “AI medical advisor” that can replace them.

News
Does Space-Time Really Exist?
Is time something that flows — or just an illusion? Exploring space-time as either a fixed “block universe” or a dynamic fabric reveals deeper mysteries about existence, change, and the very nature of reality. [...]
Unlocking hidden soil microbes for new antibiotics
Most bacteria cannot be cultured in the lab-and that's been bad news for medicine. Many of our frontline antibiotics originated from microbes, yet as antibiotic resistance spreads and drug pipelines run dry, the soil [...]
By working together, cells can extend their senses beyond their direct environment
The story of the princess and the pea evokes an image of a highly sensitive young royal woman so refined, she can sense a pea under a stack of mattresses. When it comes to [...]
Overworked Brain Cells May Hold the Key to Parkinson’s
Scientists at Gladstone Institutes uncovered a surprising reason why dopamine-producing neurons, crucial for smooth body movements, die in Parkinson’s disease. In mice, when these neurons were kept overactive for weeks, they began to falter, [...]
Old tires find new life: Rubber particles strengthen superhydrophobic coatings against corrosion
Development of highly robust superhydrophobic anti-corrosion coating using recycled tire rubber particles. Superhydrophobic materials offer a strategy for developing marine anti-corrosion materials due to their low solid-liquid contact area and low surface energy. However, [...]
This implant could soon allow you to read minds
Mind reading: Long a science fiction fantasy, today an increasingly concrete scientific goal. Researchers at Stanford University have succeeded in decoding internal language in real time thanks to a brain implant and artificial intelligence. [...]
A New Weapon Against Cancer: Cold Plasma Destroys Hidden Tumor Cells
Cold plasma penetrates deep into tumors and attacks cancer cells. Short-lived molecules were identified as key drivers. Scientists at the Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology (INP), working with colleagues from Greifswald University Hospital and [...]
This Common Sleep Aid May Also Protect Your Brain From Alzheimer’s
Lemborexant and similar sleep medications show potential for treating tau-related disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease. New research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that a commonly used sleep medication can restore normal sleep patterns and [...]
Sugar-Coated Nanoparticles Boost Cancer Drug Efficacy
A team of researchers at the University of Mississippi has discovered that coating cancer treatment carrying nanoparticles in a sugar-like material increases their treatment efficacy. They reported their findings in Advanced Healthcare Materials. Over a tenth of breast [...]
Nanoparticle-Based Vaccine Shows Promise in Fighting Cancer
In a study published in OncoImmunology, researchers from the German Cancer Research Center and Heidelberg University have created a therapeutic vaccine that mobilizes the immune system to target cancer cells. The researchers demonstrated that virus peptides combined [...]
Quantitative imaging method reveals how cells rapidly sort and transport lipids
Lipids are difficult to detect with light microscopy. Using a new chemical labeling strategy, a Dresden-based team led by André Nadler at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) and [...]
Ancient DNA reveals cause of world’s first recorded pandemic
Scientists have confirmed that the Justinian Plague, the world’s first recorded pandemic, was caused by Yersinia pestis, the same bacterium behind the Black Death. Dating back some 1,500 years and long described in historical texts but [...]
“AI Is Not Intelligent at All” – Expert Warns of Worldwide Threat to Human Dignity
Opaque AI systems risk undermining human rights and dignity. Global cooperation is needed to ensure protection. The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has changed how people interact, but it also poses a global risk to human [...]
Nanomotors: Where Are They Now?
First introduced in 2004, nanomotors have steadily advanced from a scientific curiosity to a practical technology with wide-ranging applications. This article explores the key developments, recent innovations, and major uses of nanomotors today. A [...]
Study Finds 95% of Tested Beers Contain Toxic “Forever Chemicals”
Researchers found PFAS in 95% of tested beers, with the highest levels linked to contaminated local water sources. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), better known as forever chemicals, are gaining notoriety for their ability [...]
Long COVID Symptoms Are Closer To A Stroke Or Parkinson’s Disease Than Fatigue
When most people get sick with COVID-19 today, they think of it as a brief illness, similar to a cold. However, for a large number of people, the illness doesn't end there. The World [...]